International Seaweed Symposium 2025

Cat Wilding

Newcastle University

From Barnacles to Botany: a journey to the West Coast BC with a Challenger Travel Bursary
Thanks to the generous support of a Challenger student travel bursary, I had the incredible opportunity to present my work at the 25th International Seaweed Symposium (ISS) on Vancouver Island, Canada. What followed was an exciting blend of science, adventure, and professional inspiration—an experience that has helped to shape my research approach as I progress through my PhD study.

Every three years, the ISS brings together researchers, industry leaders, policymakers, and Indigenous Peoples globally to connect, learn and share knowledge about the latest advancements in seaweed science, and technology and utilisation.

Travelling with two other students from the Marine Biological Association, we joined ~700 other delegates from around the world, to engage with 450 interesting talks and 150 posters on the event theme of “Igniting Innovation: Building on the past to advance the seaweed momentum”.

First Impressions: nature on a grand scale
Arriving in tiny Comox, Vancouver Island, the evening air smelled of cedar resin and hummed with the sound of Pacific treefrogs. The next morning, exploring at the beach, I quickly realized that everything here is super sized! Enormous barnacles covered the shore, and within 10 minutes a huge bald eagle flew right over-head – what a welcome to BC!

A Pre-Conference Dive into Marine Science
Determined to make the most of my time on the island, I arrived a week before the start of the conference to visit local marine research institutions. First up was a 5am start to assist researchers from the Hakai Institute with Nereocystis microbiome field sampling. I was rewarded with a boat trip through Bull kelp forests growing in narrow islet channels beneath temperate rainforest trees. The sunlight glinting off the kelp fronds and the swaying, sinusoidal motion of the blades as they flowed with the current was just stunning and felt like such a privilege to see. Chatting with the research team I learned about their ongoing projects, including coastal monitoring and lab work exploring kelp forest resilience.

Another highlight was visiting North Island College, where I toured their state-of-the-art bioreactors being adapted from plankton culture for kelp gametophytes, as part of ongoing kelp restoration trials. This provided a fascinating insight into the potential synergies of restoration methods with industry infrastructure – a real key to unlocking restoration potential at scale.

Exploring the Wild: kayaks, kelp, and curious creatures
In between lab tours and site visits, I had the chance to dive and kayak in the rich waters surrounding the island. The thick "plankton soup" here fuels one of the most productive ecosystems I’ve ever seen! From playful sea otters displaying iconic behaviour by rafting together and feeding on urchins, to huge Steller sea lions and even a humpback whale!

Learning, Networking, and Sharing Ideas
The conference kicked off with a beautiful welcome ceremony from the First Nations people - the traditional custodians of the land. It was a powerful reminder of the importance of Indigenous knowledge in marine stewardship, a strong theme throughout the event.

The conference programme was packed with interesting talks, sometimes running concurrently (a painful choice for anyone with cross-disciplinary interests). I attended sessions on kelp restoration and conservation, monitoring and distribution, applications, and climate resilience. The talks on kelp restoration methods were particularly relevant to my research question “developing kelp restoration methods for the UK”.

In between talks, there was plenty of opportunity to meet fellow researchers, ask questions about their work, share ideas, and find common ground. The whole atmosphere was very supportive. As a student it was encouraging to feel that approaching senior researchers wasn’t intimidating, but welcomed, and I found myself engaging in meaningful conversations that will help me shape the direction of my PhD research. I also really enjoyed a cyanotyping workshop mid-conference, led by Dr. Bridgette Clarkston. This created a fun opportunity to engage with other researchers in a relaxed setting, taking some of the pressure out of networking!

Sharing My Work
I presented a poster on my work, which generated sustained interest and engagement throughout the two hour session. The thoughtful questions and stimulating discussions it prompted continued over coffee breaks and may even result in future collaborations. This experience reinforced the value of in-person scientific exchange for fostering dialogue and building professional connections.

Final Thoughts
This trip was more than just a conference. It has fuelled my enthusiasm for my subject and given me a renewed sense of purpose in my research. I came away not only with new knowledge and insights but also new connections and added confidence in my work. I’m very grateful for the Challenger Travel Award that made this rewarding experience possible, and am excited to apply what I’ve learned to my PhD work.

Profile:
Cat is a dynamic marine ecologist specialising in seaweed restoration cultivation and harvest, Cat enjoys multidisciplinary approaches to research, and is currently undertaking a PhD with the Newcastle University, hosted at the Marine Biological Association. Her research focuses on developing kelp restoration techniques for the UK, by testing the ‘green gravel’ approach for the UK context. This is an emerging area of research and likely to be of importance in the near future, due to key role of kelp habitats in delivery of ecosystem services to the predicted intensification of threats to coastal ecosystems. Development of a kelp restoration toolkit for the UK as a precautionary approach is timely, to allow for rapid targeted action in the event of a mass kelp die-off.

With over 15 years’ experience in various marine conservation and education roles, Cat has developed strong marine survey and sampling skills including scientific diving, commercial boat handling, and stakeholder engagement. Drawing upon these and her academic background in marine and coastal ecology, Cat combines fieldwork, aquarium and laboratory techniques to optimise kelp restoration approaches for native kelp populations in the UK coastal environment. Her work ultimately aims to understand and promote resilience of marine vegetated habitats in the face of global ocean change, to inform and marine conservation and management.

Cat has led or co-authored several peer reviewed and contract publications, and has presented her research at national and international event. For example, Cat led the production a Natual England's British Kelp Forest Restoration: Feasibility Report, and The influence of seeding method and water depth on the morphology and biomass yield of farmed sugar kelp at a small-scale cultivation site in the northeast Atlantic in the Journal of Applied Phycology. Her citation record reflects her early yet meaningful contributions to marine restoration ecology (an emergin field in the UK).

She has recently advised development of local and national management strategy through involvement in expert steering group panel meetings (e.g. Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Marine Nature Recovery Framework - Kelp Reef), the Environment Agency (EA) Natural Capital monitoring programme and the ‘Restoration in practice – technical considerations’ section of the EA UK Kelp restoration guidebook.

Cat is keen to deliver solutions-focused applied research to promote marine stewardship, for which she gratefully acknowledges the importance of the Challenger Society Travel Award in enabling her to participate in an international conference.